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King George V of England, Tsar Nicholas II of Russia and Wilhelm II of Germany were cousins. Their family squabbles created WW1 a war that could not be settled until the end of WW2.

We've been having such hot couple of weeks here in London that I've been struggling to even think of baking. But I have made an exception for my birthday and baked myself a lovely birthday treat - a tangy lemony cake. A perfect end to a day with a nice hot cup of tea.

Full recipe in my blog here

Just finished baking a couple of loaves of Tartine sourdough.  Handling of this wet dough has become much easier after watching some You Tube videos showing how to shape. I have found that doing an overnight proofing in the refrigerator makes the Scoring much easier.  It also gives better time flexibility in baking as you do not have to let the dough warm up after the overnight proofing. All of this is outlined in the book Tartine bread.  This is a fun bread to make.   Tastes great too.

Okay this loaf definitely blew a tire and I am not sure why. Overproofed? Underproofed?  Poorly shaped?  Poorly scored?

This was a simple lean hearth loaf using my new SD starter and following dabrownman's excellent instructions:

http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/34282/modifying-peter-reinharts-recipes-sour-dough-starter

• My first sourdough. Made with 3 day poolish and only regular flour. The scores went too deep. It resembles a bicycle helmet. Thats funny. The taste is great. Knead by hand. Crumb not too open. Try this bread with jam, ham and cheese. With cheese is absolutely wonderful.

This is a straight dough. Old recipe..regular cup/tsp measures. Sometimes the tried and true is the best. I did wet the shaped dough and pressed the top into the oatmeal,read about it here on TFL ..worked like a charm !  The bread is for a customer so no pic of crumb. 

Here is the dough just before going in the oven. c

This is the result of my second try with viennoserie. The croissants are small, because I used a larger amount of dough for the pain au chocolat. The crumb wasnt what I expected. I knead it by hand. The result was a heavier dough and heavier bread. The pain au chocolat weight around 110 grs. The croissants, 44 grs. The taste was very good but I will use a knead machine next time.

A classic German party bread makes for an attractive center piece. Guests can help themselves by pulling apart these pretty little rolls. I wanted to decorate it with sesame and poppy seeds but since poppy seeds aren't available here, I used nigella seeds instead.

Adapted from Eric Treuille and Ursula Ferrigno's book Bread